Danez Smith facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Danez Smith
|
|
|---|---|
a.jpg) |
|
| Born | St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Literary movement | Dark Noise Collective |
| Notable works | [insert] Boy Don't Call Us Dead: Poems Homie |
| Notable awards | Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry Kate Tufts Discovery Award Forward Prize |
Danez Smith is an American poet, writer, and performer. They are from St. Paul, Minnesota. Smith has written several poetry collections. These include [insert] Boy, Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, and Homie. Their books have won many awards. Their newest poetry collection, Bluff, came out in 2024.
Contents
About Danez Smith
Early Life and School
Danez Smith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. They went to Saint Paul Central High School. Smith grew up with their mother and grandparents. Their family comes from Mississippi and Georgia.
Smith has shared that reading was hard for them until third grade. A teacher told them that reading would help them read video game magazines. This made Smith want to learn to read.
Smith attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They were a First Wave Urban Arts Scholar there. They earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2012.
Poetry Career
Smith is a founder of the Dark Noise Collective. This is a group of poets. Other members include Fatimah Asghar and Jamila Woods.
Smith has performed on TV. They joined Macklemore on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2016. Their poems have been in magazines like Poetry and Ploughshares.
Smith has written several books of poetry. Their first book, [insert] Boy, won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry in 2014. It was also named a Best Poetry Book by The Boston Globe.
Their second book, Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, was a finalist for the National Book Award for poetry in 2017. Their third book, Homie, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry in 2020. It also won the Minnesota Book Award for Poetry in 2021.
Smith has also written two smaller poetry books called chapbooks. These are hands on ya knees (2013) and black movie (2015). black movie won the Button Poetry Prize.
Smith has competed in poetry slams. They were a finalist twice in the Individual World Poetry Slam. They placed second in 2014.
Smith also co-hosts a poetry podcast called VS. They host it with fellow poet Franny Choi. The podcast is from the Poetry Foundation.
In 2017, Smith received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2018, they won the Four Quartets Prize for their poem series "summer, somewhere". Smith also won the Forward Prizes for Poetry for best poetry collection. They were the youngest person to win this award at age 29.
Works by Danez Smith
Poems
- "poem where I be & you just might" (Poetry Society of America)
- "Dinosaurs in the Hood" (Poetry, December 2014)
- "the bullet was a girl" (Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, September 3, 2015)
- "Principles" (video from Brave New Voices Festival, July 2016)
- "You're Dead, America" (BuzzFeed, November 9, 2016)
- "C.R.E.A.M." (Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, February 1, 2017)
- "Don't Try Us" (Fader, May 1, 2017)
- Selection from "summer, somewhere" (The New York Times, June 9, 2017)
Chapbooks
- hands on ya knees (2013, Penmanship Books)
- black movie (2015, Button Poetry), ISBN 978-1-943735-00-6
Books
- [insert] boy, YesYes Books (2014), ISBN: 978-1936919284
- Don't Call Us Dead, Graywolf Press (2017), ISBN: 978-1555977856
- Homie, Graywolf Press (2020), ISBN: 978-1644450109
- Bluff, Graywolf Press (2024), ISBN 978-1-64445-298-1
In Anthologies
- Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University of Georgia Press, 2018) ISBN: 978-0820353159
Awards and Recognition
- 2014 – Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship
- 2015 – Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry
- 2015 – Norma Farber First Book Award, Finalist
- 2016 – Kate Tufts Discovery Award
- 2017 – NEA fellowship for creative writing
- 2017 – National Book Award for Poetry, Finalist
- 2018 – Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection
- 2018 – Four Quartets Prize
- 2021 – Minnesota Book Award for Poetry
